Pages tagged "features"

Idle No More organizer & One House Many Nations builder, Alex Wilson, speaking at Just Transitions

In this email update, we are sharing some exciting news from the Indigenous folks who are working for sustainable solutions for not only our communities but also to provide models other communities can pick up to apply at home. We get to learn more from folks who are showing how to lead in result based solutions.

On Sunday, Oct. 14th, The Defenders of the Land, the Truth Campaign and the Idle No More networks will be hosting a live stream webinar. We will be providing an analysis of Canada’s proposed “Recognition and Implementation of Indigenous Rights Framework” legislation. This live broadcast will be moderated by Janice Makokis and our guest panel will include legal policy analysts Sara Mainville, Russell Diabo and Rachel Snow.

In this blog post, we have included a two-page brochure and information sheet that you can print and distribute within your community's. It has been prepared by grassroots volunteers to ensure that we have tools needed that break down the federal legalese, so you know exactly how our collective rights as the Original Peoples of these vast territories are being attacked. We have also prepared an information sheet to further help those people who have begun to organize teach-ins in communities across the land. Folks are already beginning to collectively educate folks about the Federal Recognition and Implementation of Rights Framework legislation, due to be introduced into federal parliament before the Christmas break.

To pay homage to our late colleague Arthur Manuel, we are also including information about the Art Manuel Awards and how you can nominate a Land Defender, Water Protector or Champion for Self-Determination. The deadline is this Friday, September 28th at midnight eastern time, only three days left to nominate someone you know. Everything you need to learn more about the awards is provided below the following teach-in tools.

Federal "Rights Framework" Legislation - Two Page Brochure

Through the combined efforts of the Idle No More, Defenders of the Land and Truth Before Reconciliation volunteers, this printable brochure is one of several tools we are providing to help you and your community members learn more about the Federal Recognition and Implementation of Rights Framework. The brochure is accessible by simply clicking on the picture below or you can access page one by clicking on this link: Federal Framework Brochure Page One

Welcome to our latest Idle No More email update. We have important news to share about a handful of the many awareness campaigns, Indigenous rights to self-determination campaigns, and Indigenous-led land and water protection actions. All across our territories, Indigenous youth, men, women, and Two-Spirit peoples are out on the land taking a stand and raising awareness. Whether our resistance comes in the form of art, music, or language revitalization camps, people are sharing food sovereignty knowledge, reclaiming cultural tradition, and holding space in response to the Indigenous child apprehension crisis. Our communities come together in so many different ways and bring a vast wealth of skills and knowledge to help advance Indigenous rights to self-determination and environmental protections.

Idle No More Stands In Solidarity with Justice for Our Stolen Children Organizers

Idle No More stands in solidarity with the Justice For Our Stolen Children (JFOSC) camp in Treaty 4 territory, and agrees with the organizer’s call to reform the foster care system in the province of Saskatchewan. The peaceful demonstration began in the late spring at the legislative building in Regina in response to the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the murder of Colten Boushie and the acquittal of Raymond Cormier in the murder of teenager Tina Fontaine. The purpose of the camp is to expose and draw attention to the inequalities of the systems in place that kills Indigenous men, women, Two-Spirit people and children on a daily basis. The practices of these systems go unscrutinized by most Canadians.

On the morning of Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Hamilton, Ontario, a jury of 5 women and 7 men found Peter Khill not guilty of the second-degree murder charge, for the intentional premeditated shooting of an unarmed Six Nations man, Jon Styres. The parallels between the Jon Styres and Colten Boushie cases cannot be ignored, as both cases highlight how Canadian jurys across the country continue to send the message to Indigenous communities, that Canadians private property holds more value than the lives of Indigenous Peoples. Both young men were unarmed on private property when they were shot. In both cases, the men standing trial for second-degree murder were found not guilty for the shootings.

Stop Termination!

On February 14, 2018 Prime Minister Trudeau gave a speech in Parliament announcing a new framework that would legislate "Rights Recognition". The proposed framework is a direct threat to Indigenous Peoples right to self-determination. This proposed framework needs to be stopped.

These efforts are not new, but are a variation on rhetoric and policy that has been tried before in Canada and the United States. In the 1970’s, Dr. Buffy Sainte-Marie also discussed termination, the erosion of Treaties and the direct connection to resource extraction. Watch the video at the link below and listen for parallels in the language: Video: Dr. Buffy St. Marie

The First Continental Summit of Indigenous Nations, Pueblos and Organizations was convened in Teotihuacan, Mexico in 2000. Previously, there were realized two Continental Indigenous Encounters, building up to the summit, in 1990 in Quito, Ecuador and then in 1993, in Temoaya, Mexico. The Second Continental Summit Abya Yala occurred in Quito, Ecuador (2004), then to be followed by the third in Iximche, Guatemala (2007); the fourth in Puno, Peru (2009); and then the fifth in Cauca, Colombia (2013).

At the fifth summit in 2013, at the request of the representatives of the Civic Council of Indigenous and Popular Organizations of Honduras COPINH led by Berta Cáceres, the summit plenary agreed in consensus to organize the Sixth Continental Summit Abya Yala in Honduras.

On March 2, 2016, armed men murdered human rights defender Berta Cáceres in her home in the town of La Esperanza, Department of Intibucá, Honduras. The family of Berta and the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) immediately requested an independent investigation due to concerns that Honduran authorities would not identify the intellectual authors of the crime. The call for an independent international investigation continues now in 2018, even as the country of Honduras suffers yet another political coup being instituted by the elite power structures of that country, with open support from the US government and military apparatus.